ky finally had his little b'day party at e wekend. it's likely to be his last one, so i didnt mind making it extra-special. (p1 now, so from now on it will be small affairs... movie-nite etc)

i told him he cd invite 10 friends this time (& of course that he neednt count siblings altho they were invited.). it was hard for him to choose as there were so many he wd hv liked to have come.   eventually though, he settled on 5 old mates and 5 new ones. ("i want half boys and half girls," he informed me.  so this made the choosing even more difficult!  he chose a pirate theme,  wrote out the invites and gave them to his mates at school. (one even went to "a sweet girl who sits behind me when we line up to come home. i dont know her name yet but i can find out. she's in p2."  :)

as the day drew nearer he got veeeery excited.

and the night before the big day, he just cdnt sleep... i found him lying awake close to midnite!   we'd learned that some of his mates cdnt make it because of extra classes, swimming lessons and the like.  and most of them were the girls...  so that put a dampener on it.

at one point he was afraid that no-one wd turn up at all!  (and it didnt help that kayla was the one to start joking about this, even b4 anyone had voiced their concerns. the smarty-pants has her head firmly screwed on when making such associations, but alas, she usually choses to share such thoughts at totally inappropriate times!).  ... but his fears were unfounded!  :b

the morning turned out sunny, and found our kids painting a very long 'happy birthday' banner outside in the corridor. the cat tried to help of course!. :)

i busied myself packing up all the goodies and trounding up dh to help get them to e car. he did a great job half-concealing his stress, and was a very capable porter, getting all our barang and the magnificent pirate ship cake to the location all in one piece and with no tantrums ensuing. ;) 

it was a slow start as most ppl were only to arrive after 4pm. but that gave us time to unpack at a leisurely pace, and shift undercover out of e way of impending drizzle. thankfully it quickly past, so the banner went out, the picnic rugs were spread, and the food promptly arranged.  because of the slow start, all games were set back an hour, but from then on it was all systems go...

the kids headed straight for the playgrd when they 1st arrived, quickly climbing, and digging, and spinning, and piling sand on the play equipment. it was good to hv the playgrd so close to the shelter, as they cd be let loose on their own. so they just kept coming back for snacks and drinks when tehy were totally parched n peckish. when it was times for games, one yell and they were quick to come running...

the biggest and smallest, happily lined up on the 'plank' to play 'pin the patch on e pirate'... they all did magnificently well too! (how is it that none of them missed? not even kay....was the blindfold 'fixed'? erm... i think i shd hv tried myself!!  their 'reward' was pieces of e 1st treasure map.  a capable mama or 2 whisked them farway to assemble it, while kay and i snuck ard trying to bury/hide 3 lots of treasure without being spotted by the little pirates! 

we shdnt hv worried though...they were all totally oblivious and absorbed... and the maps turned out to be secondary in their endeavours. once they had worked out the general direction, they raced there on-masse, each yelling orders from afar. the details, such as 'exact' location on e map, semed totally irrelevent.  so it was probably by pure coincidence  that they found them (oh, and perhaps helped by a little prompting from kay when they went off in totally  the wrong direction!) 

which brings me to e topic of our littlest one, who had hardly any attention at all in the previous days.  she'd been ill on and off. sore throat, cough, no appetite, mild fever, and general crankiness. it had been 4weeks already when i finally got her to the doc. e antibiotics didnt seem to clear it, so she was pretty much left to try and get rid of it on her own.... now i had been totally consumed with shopping for the party and preparing food, baking and decorating the cake, making e sweet pirate treats, printing tq cards, drawing maps, organising games materials, and of course preparing the special goodie bags.  so i had had little time to molly-coddle her... (this b'day party seemed very time-consuming!)

oh, and w/o ky's help this year (ie he was in school), preparing e goodie bags was left totally to me. what an enormous job! (esp as we had 4 colour-coded variations to assemble: older boys, older girls, younger boys, and younger girls.)  kay wasnt much help with the prep cos like i said, she was feeling kind-of cranky...

but on e day of e party she really surprised me. she showed great patience and understanding. when she was absolutely bursting to go to the loo, she waited for me 1st to set out some of e food, and then waited some more because i distractedly forgot about her request!...and then when i rememebered, i hurriedly arranged for a mum to hold the fort while i disappeared with her. 

after that, she stuck close to me for a while, but i think she realised i was too tied up to really give her any tlc...so off she went to the playground to join in with all the old and new faces.

she popped back a few times to come and ask me to give her a swing, but i was always tied up, so kindly asked her to wait until much later when everyone had eaten and were closer to going home. strangely, she toatlly accepted this and didnt even kick up a fuss. she'd merely dissappear and come back again an hour or so later to quietly ask again. finally, when all the games had been played, the cake had been cut, e mums had done their chatting, and we were just starting to pack up, then she appeared again... it was 7.30pm. dh had arrived and was hurrying me to get packed and be on our way... but i had promised her... so i excused myself for a while and gave e dear child the swing that she'd so patiently been waiting for... a very long 4-and-a-half hrs it must hv been! and she was sooooo happy to finally get her just desserts!

she wanted to stay up there forever, but it was v late...so with promises that we'd come again one school-day, i finally lead her away.

what a pleasant time it had been chatting with the other mums...making new acquaintances, renewing old, and just watching how our kids interracted with their special friends, both little and big. 

the day had been great! the weather had been perfect! the location so near, and ky had been over-the-moon.... 1: to have his friends come (even if not all, at least some),  2: to have some gifts to unwrap, and 3: to have what he thinks was "the best party and cake ever!"  truly, no parties can happen unless u hv special people to share them with. this i think, is the greatest thing he learned this birthday.... and a special tq to those who came but for a short while... that wd be a very difficult thing for any kid, but just seeing that they came made him feel so very special!

we finally piled into e car at ard 8.30pm. we realised the empty 'treasure chest' wasnt with us. (kay's toy-storage box. dh said to leave it as it was pitch dark everywhere, but i knew kay wd be upset. she surprisingly volunteered to come back with me and help me search for it. i thought it very sweet, and was grateful for the company in the darkness ;) though i didnt tell her such! :) we found it the same place that the pirates had abandoned it a few hrs earlier... then bade a final farewell to e last of our pals digging in e sand, and headed back.

once back, i ran e bath, fed e kids, unpacked and readied their rooms. dear kay complained that there was sand on the floor. she mentioned it a few tiimes but it was truly the last thing on my mind. so i explained that it probably came out of their clothes or shoes, and directed her to go and bath. she complained that she was too tired to undress, but harking back about the sand, added "it's ok, i'll get the vacume and clean it up."

it was then close to 10pm, an hr past her bedtime, and here was my little 4yr-old girl, exhausted from a long day out, been awake half the night coughing, too tired to undress, but now lugging the handy-vac around the entrance hall doing swift work of it, and then proceeding into the kitchen to clean up there too... no-one even asked her, and i totally wdnt hv expected it from anyone of us after the incredibly exhausting day we'd had! what's more, i honestly dont think even i wd have done it as a much older kid, let-alone a 4yr-old! all i can say is my hat's off to her! i think she'll make a super wife one day! :))

ky on the otherhand was happily unwrapping his presents, ooohing and aaahing with his daddy, and not in the least bit interested in anything besides extending his fun! :b  and when i took him to bed that night, he continued recounting all the wonderfu lthings they had done...

the best bit for ky?...."digging a really deep hole in the sand, until i hit hard ground, and then digging some more!" 

and kay's favourite bit?... "e swing!" :b

they are both so very sweet in such different ways!  how totally blessed my hubby and i are.  (and may we never forget it....)